TLS Continuum Part 13: I have to get out of this place

Congratulations you have been designated a high performance, high potential human capital asset. You have achieved the goal of getting the corner office. Your career development plan/succession plan is on target with this stop only going to last about three years and then you are off to another assignment. These plateaus are enhancing your career portfolio but along the way you have missed out on a golden opportunity to take your career to the highest level it could go. Do you really know what is going on in your organization? Do you know the true nature of the current conditions? Do you have a strategic plan to carry the organization into the future?

In his book Out of the Crisis, Dr. W. Edward Deming presented his 14 points of quality of which number six is institute training. He was not talking about creating some new training program. What he was talking about was creating this opportunity we mentioned above about the missed opportunity. Deming said that in order to turn around an organization and change the culture both managers and employees must understand the entire organization. The entire organization must learn the flow of “materials” from the front door to the rear door. The entire organization must understand the corporate financials from all aspects.

The question becomes how do we gain that knowledge? We do that by getting out of the corner office. We gain that knowledge by walking the workplace and observing. We gain that knowledge by really seeing the problems in the workplace and how those problems affect the entire organization and their stakeholders. We gain that knowledge by using those insights to change the corporate culture.

Tachii Ohno tells us that “ the past is the past and what is important is the current condition and what we will do next to go beyond where we are today.” By getting out of the corner office we are able to establish the current conditions which answers the first question we posed – Do you really know what is going on in your organization? It is from there we can begin to implement innovative solutions, which respond to the final question – Do you have a strategic plan to carry the organization into the future?

By getting out of this place we learn how to empower organizational change to make the organization a better place to live and work. By getting out of this place we learn how to engage the human capital assets in the entire organization. We demonstrate that we value their suggestions and show them that we recognize their ownership of the process on a daily basis.

Part 14 of the TLS Continuum Blog Series will suggest 10 strategies for helping you get out of the office. Until then drop your comments to [email protected]. Let me know if you agree you need to get out of this place to empower your organization.